What should you expect from your PR agency?
If you haven’t dipped your toe into the world of PR before, it can be a bit of a mystery. What will you get from an agency, exactly? How do you know if you’re working with experts or not? Maybe you’ve worked with an agency before, and it wasn’t what you expected.
At Lucky North, we pride ourselves in being the experts in our field. PR is in our soul, it’s all that we do so that we can provide an unrivalled service. But not everyone works like us, so how do you know if you’re getting all you should from an agency? Here’s our list of what you should expect from your PR agency:
Expertise
Some agencies offer more than one service, but making sure the people working on your account are dedicated to PR is a must. Everyone at Lucky North knows PR like the back of their hand – we don’t try and do anything else, and we don’t want to.
Research that finds the pull
When you start working with any PR agency they should want to know everything there is to know about your business. Have they asked all the right questions? Have they left no stone unturned? Don’t let anything be assumed – you know your brand and how extensively others should too.
If you’re a product based business, your agency should have sampled your range, plus carried out any site visits to understand the whole process from product concept to audience consumption.
It’s not all about knowing you though, a good agency will understand your audience fully too, and essentially, the media they consume.
Master storytelling
The best of PR is storytelling at its finest. We go out of our way to find the story in your business and bring it to everyone’s attention. This could be a story with a specific hook, because we know a particular publication will love it, or a key message presented in a way that’s unique to your audience’s needs. Your agency shouldn’t rely on you for information, having already spent the time getting to know you inside out.
Coverage!
It should go without saying, a good PR agency will get your business coverage. But it’s not just coverage we want, it’s specific, targeted and appropriate coverage that your audience will see. We want to get you in the right place at the right time (for the right eyes and ears).
Brand building
Your work with a PR agency is a journey. You’ll start things in a different place to where you are in the future, and that’s all part of your business development. PR can help construct that narrative change and support natural changes too.
A part of what we do is get to know your future as well as your now, so we can implement the right PR for your growth.
Opportunities
As PR experts, we’re all ears to the ground. We’ll hear the rumble of any opportunity that fits your business and bring new ideas that we evolve constantly. A good agency will be in touch with their press contacts all the time to know when your name fits an opportunity to present you as the chosen name in your industry.
Consistent alertness
PR has to be responsive. That means being on hand for close attention and urgent messaging. Our PR senses are switched on constantly, ready to spring into action, knowing exactly what a carefully curated message looks like, whether the request is ahead of time or urgent.
A good agency will always be monitoring the news for coverage and topical items (and know exactly where to get the very first updates!).
Just like the news, business priorities can change, and your PR agency should understand this and be flexible to meet your needs.
They hold regular reviews
Reviews are healthy, for both you and your agency. They should review their activity and report results against metrics that are important to you monthly, if not quarterly. They should want to continuously improve, learn from things that work and things that didn’t and make sure their activity stays in line with your business goals and objectives. Great agencies will invite you to do this face to face, which leads us to…
Being passionate and fun to work with
You should feel like your agency really cares about you. Going that extra mile and demonstrating that they enjoy working on your business, and in turn making sure you enjoy working with them. Meeting up for a coffee, taking you out for lunch and attending awards ceremonies together is an important part of relationship building and they should be investing their time in doing this with you.
This one isn’t really a point to check off, but it felt right to round it up to ten…
How has your agency performed against this list? Have you listened to a proposal lately that didn’t cover everything here? Do you feel like there’s room for improvement?
We’d always recommend having a chat with your agency about how they can go further for your business, and we’re here if you’re shopping around too. Everything we’ve talked about is something our clients feel through and through, whether they’ve been with us three months or three years. If we’ve piqued your interest, why not ask what we could do for you?
Get in touch with us today.
